Syracuse crunches Monsters in Q matinee

The lights stayed on all afternoon at Quicken Loans Arena on Dec. 1, but a power outage doomed the Monsters.

After playing four straight overtime games, the Monsters were stopped, 5-3, by the Syracuse Crunch in a matinee game before the Cavaliers hosted the Toronto Raptors in a Q nightcap. MONSTERS 5, CRUNCH 3

The Monsters were 0-for-5 on the power play. Not only that; the Crunch took a 4-2 lead on a shorthanded goal 3:16 into the second period.

Less than 24 hours earlier, the Monsters beat the Crunch, 4-3, in an overtime thriller at The Q. Prior to that, they played three straight overtime games with the Marlies, losing twice at home and winning once in Toronto.

“I thought five-on-five we were clearly the better team in the two games, particularly today,” Coach John Madden said. “Our power play continues to struggle. We got a couple good looks tonight, but not really enough to generate (scoring opportunities).

“Where our PP is really struggling is second-chance opportunities. We don’t come up with those. They’re really good at clearing second chances, but that’s no excuse.”

The Monsters started the day 27th on the power play in the 31-team AHL.

Five-foot-9 fireplug Vitaly Abramov cut the Syracuse lead to 4-3 on a goal with 9:41 to play, giving the crowd of 6,820 some hope. But the Monsters never put another shot on net the rest of the game.

“Overall, we dig ourselves holes we can’t get out of,” Madden said. “We’ve come back in a few of those, but today we just didn’t have enough in the tank.”

The loss snapped a fivegame point streak for the Monsters, now 11-8-3-0 and second in the AHL North.

Matiss Kivlenieks started in goal for the Monsters. He did not last long. He gave up three goals in the first 6:24 before Madden replaced him with Jean-Francoise Berube. Berube stopped 19 of 20 shots, but the goal he did give up was the shorthanded goal on a blast by Boris Katchouk from the top of the left circle.

A goal by Sonny Milano tied the game 1-1. Doyle Somerby scored his first goal of the season when he backhanded a rebound into the net to cut the Syracuse lead to 3-2 with 4:45 left in the first period.

The Monsters could not tie the game again despite a 38-28 shot advantage.